Engage: Soil Degradation

Phenomena: Degraded and Distubed Soil Slide Show

Time required: 20 minutes to show images and ask students what they think is happening in this series of images.

Start the discussion by asking students why healthy soil is important to sustaining life.

Then share the following PowerPoint presentation with the students and ask them to write down what they observe in each image and how soil has been altered. In each case, ask them to describe the evidence that supports their reasoning. The process of degradation is described as, "the changing of a soil to a more highly leached and a more highly weathered condition."

• What in the image looks disturbed or degraded to them?
• Does the soil look healthy for growing plants?

Degraded Soil Images.pptx (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 17.8MB Dec13 20) Click the link to download a copy of this file to your desktop.

As an extension, students may search for other images of degraded soil to share with the class.
Possible image source: NRCS Photo Gallery
Use search terms such as:

• Historical
• Erosion
• Water erosion
• Salinization
• Soil Quality
• Wind